


bound

by alonelyfangirl



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha Lance (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Altean Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Angst, Anxious Keith (Voltron), Arranged Marriage, Dont we all tbh, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gang activities, Gay, Gay Keith (Voltron), Idiots in Love, Kinda, Kissing, Lance is a sweetheart, Love, M/M, Mating, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mutual Pining, No Smut, Omega Keith (Voltron), Sassy Keith (Voltron), Scenting, Slow Burn, Social Justice, Tags Are Hard, Weird Coincidences, a fight for it at least, engineer!pidge, flirty!Lance, hes whipped for keith, im stupid, keith and lance just rescue each other, keith hates his inner omega, keiths a badass who fights for omegan rights, keiths a mood, keiths angsty, keiths got self esteem issues, klance are idiots, lance smells like the sea, mainly keith centric, pidge and hunk are supportive legends, pidge hates klance's bullshit, pidge is a girl but she doesnt care about pronouns, this spiraled way outta control, this was a mess to write and a mess to tag, written from a prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-05-30 15:27:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19406095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alonelyfangirl/pseuds/alonelyfangirl
Summary: And as Keith looked up at the sea-foam sky, the veiled future bowed before him like a vision of promise. He shot one last glance at the palace, the life he had once led, the arranged marriage he had left waiting for him, all glittering in a frozen sea of sky, and lost himself in the hanging fog.





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> this originally started as like a 10k word kinda thing
> 
> it's kind of out of control now
> 
> oopsies
> 
> hopefully i dont lose motivation and discontinue this like i always seem to do
> 
> more oopsies

Keith was fuming. No, he wasn't fuming. He was raving. No, he wasn’t raving either. 

There really wasn’t any other word in the english language to describe the  **anger** that Keith felt. 

It was like he had the sudden impulses of a madman. With a broken roar, like billows on an unseen shore, his fury burst, shattering the glass vases that lay on the side table. He was a seething witch’s cauldron, brewing up boiling bouts of fierce and powerful rage. 

“Your highness, please calm down-“

“Calm down? CALM DOWN? You really think that you can say that to me so blatantly? I bet you knew about this, this, this LIE that I've been fed my entire childhood, you were all planning this, weren’t you? To make sure that another  **omega** doesn’t ascend the throne, right? It’s bad enough that I’m a halfblood, but I thought we got over that long ago. Wasn’t it you who told me things for omegas were changing? That we don’t need an alpha to prove our worth? What a motherfucking joke,” Keith scoffed. 

“Your highness, please-“

Keith’s gaze pierced like an arrow as he vengefully stared down the Galra ministers. “No, I don't want to hear another word of your lies, your  _ treachery.” _

He shot the court one last scornful sneer before sticking his nose high in the air and flouncing out of the throne room with a taunting sway of his hips and a swish of his cloak. 

The thoughts in his head pound like the thunder of a retreating storm as he strides through the palace halls. Despite his omega status, Keith has always exuded an aura of lordship and nobility. His aloofness and incapacity to surrender dominance to another was what was blamed for his lack of a mate. However, his mother, the Queen, still had hope that Keith would find a suitable alpha parter, and would persistently invite various dukes and princes to court him. However, Keith would snub them at every chance he got, and therefore had a reputation as ‘unmateable’. 

Keith suspects his turning down of Lord Ozar was probably the last straw for his mother. 

“Keith, darling,” Krolia had started off. “We’ve given you these past 3 years to try and find yourself a mate, and it’s been fruitless.”

“All the nobles you invited were bumbling baboon-heads and you know it.” Keith replies, snarkily. 

Krolia sighs. She felt like the crown's heavy metal was squeezing the life out of her temples. “Keith, I’m sorry, but it really is time for you to find a mate.”

“Mother, you’ve ruled mateless for decaphoebs.” 

“I’m sorry Keith. I've found a suitable alpha from Altea. You will meet, and eventually mate. There is nothing more to it.” 

Keith had quivered like struck harp strings as the words seeped through every fibre of his being, the betrayal oozing like slime into the blood in his pulsing veins. 

Keith had always been told that even though he was an omega, he held value that was untradeable. He had always been told that no alpha would be able to dim the light that shone from within him, and that only the best would claim him. He was the crown prince, after all. 

His mother had been a princess before she'd run off and met her mate, his father. However, on a day where the sky was the soft grey of a centuries’ old bridal dress, the clouds resting tenderly and lingeringly like a haunting perfume, she had collapsed before the castle gates with Keith wrapped in a wan, spotless shroud and pressed desperately to her chest. She had left her mate when she heard that the Galra emperor, her father, was dead, and her brother too in a ruthless assassination. She was crowned the very next day, beneath a sky as fair as summer flowers. 

And as Keith looked up at the sea-foam sky, standing by the wrought-iron of the palace gates, the veiled future bowed before him like a vision of promise. He shot one last glance at the palace, the life he had once led, the arranged marriage left waiting for him, all glittering in a frozen sea of sky, and lost himself in the hanging fog. 


	2. one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith's on the run, a wanted vigilante. 
> 
> Cake is nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> homegirl's made some big changes - finished writing a little while ago, wanted to edit. so, you're getting this updated version. prologue, epilogue, 5 chapters, each with different lengths because i'm very weird. will continue posting over the next few weeks. :)

The city is a bustling hullabaloo of price haggling, spices and clouds of dust that whirl through the air like yellow silken scarves, and the humid desert heat of the market that thickens as it rises above the swarm of heads. Pearls of sweat crawl down Keith’s brow as he weaves his way through the primeval chaos of the crowd. Wanted posters with his face plastered all over them hang from every wall, window, nook and crevice. 

Keith mentally thanks his earlier self for saving the contact lenses from his last visit to Earth. 

His thoughts, in the meantime, are as fleeting as dreams. Ever since leaving the palace, he's been wandering from planet to planet in his stolen fighter pod. He’s always been impulsive, fiery and unpredictable, like a living meteor; it's still surreal to believe that he no longer lives at the palace. He sees vendor after vendor, offering goods, loaves of bread, precious jewels, eyes gleaming like soap bubbles, but none of which has what he wants. Not that he knows what that is. 

That is, until he sees a soft and purple mist, hiding underneath the vibrantly dyed fabric of what looks like a fortune-teller’s tent, glowing like a vaporous amethyst. 

Keith doesn’t know what draws him to that cloud as purple as the flush of dawn, but like a locust gathers to a stream before a fire, entranced, he walks towards it. But as he nears closer, the cloud retreats, and Keith can’t help but grow curiouser and curiouser. He picks up his pace, chasing this elusive violet fog that almost definitely leads to no good. 

But what’s the worst that could happen? 

“Hey!” 

As sudden as a dislocated joint slipping back into place, he starts, his trance broken. 

“Are you okay? You looked kinda out of it there.”

Keith turns to face his interlocutor, ready to retort with an insolent remark, but suddenly feels himself held captive under the gaze of the man’s eyes. They dance like a wave of the ocean, singing like sea nymphs. They glow blue like coals, or the noonday sky, and burst like a jewel in the sun. Captured by these eyes, Keith can’t seem to form words at all. 

“Uhh, I mean, I’m used to people being speechless when seeing me, but you didn’t answer my question. I’m Lance, by the way. Lance McClain.”

By the markings above Lance's cheekbones, Keith can tell that he’s Altean. 

“I’m Keith.” 

Keith’s never nice to a stranger. What sorcery is this? 

“Nice to meet you. You looked like a ghost just then. What did you see?” 

This Lance was obstinate, wasn't he? He was as unrelenting as the blues of his eyes.

“I am unsure. It probably was some sort of magic, I suppose. I think it was leading me somewhere. Thank you for getting me out of it, I guess.” 

Lance’s smile sheds radiance like an unclouded sun, as sweet as a fairy. Keith’s breath catches in his throat, struggling like a caged animal. 

“No problem at all, my dude. Oh, I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s Keith. Keith Kogane. I did tell you already.” Keith feels shyer than even the most hesitant squirrel, as he feels the blood rush to the tips of his ears underneath his hood. 

“Oh, sorry. I’m forgetful. Keith Kogane. Huh.”

“Why do you make that noise?” 

“Oh, nothing. Don’t worry about it. Just thought I knew you from somewhere, that’s all.” Lance waves a hand dismissively. “Hey, you’re probably new around here, aren’t you? Want me to show you around? You can meet my friends!” 

Keith was about to refuse, but when Lance widened those big blue eyes of his and stuck out his lower lip, and said, “pretty pretty please? I promise I’ll make it worth your while.” Keith couldn’t bring himself to refuse. He didn’t have anything better to do, did he? Lance seemed about as harmless as a new laid egg, and as trusting as a child. 

‘Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?’, Keith tells himself as Lance leads him down a dilapidated, rank alleyway with a weird fluttering in his chest, as if there was a dove trapped inside his ribcage. His nerves felt like throbbing violins as Lance’s scent became increasingly apparent. An alpha scent, and an attractive one too. 

Lance smells like the sweet, spiced smoke of beach campfires, and last night’s ocean-side barbecue. Hints of cumin and oregano permeate the hazy tropical scent that Lance exudes with pride, giving him an exotic, alluring smell that draws you in with just one sniff. It’s got Keith’s inner omega reeling, as he unwillingly lets off his own, matching pheromones in response. 

“You’re an omega, then?” Lance asks him. 

Keith curses internally. He wasn’t planning on releasing his scent so soon. He scowls, as dark as the swift winter whirlwinds. “Yeah, got a problem with that?” 

“Nope. In fact, I was just about to tell you that my friend, the one we’re about to meet, is actually a fighter for omegan rights. She’s really cool, I promise. She's a beta, and she’s been working on this ship for us that’ll hopefully get us off this planet and out into the universe! I haven’t known her that long, but I promise you that she’s great.” 

And with that, Lance stops, right in front of a sandstone archway, bricks decorated with symbols that Keith’s unfamiliar with, sand particles breaking off from the tiles and drifting lazily in the air. Crumbling sandstone steps lead down to a dark and damp passage. Although torches sparsely adorned the walls, their light was rich and vibrant, letting a strange sense of belonging and truth took the whole building under it’s motherly wing. 

As he descended down the stairs, Keith almost felt as if he would regret to lose this place, a haven among travellers of the universe, a place where safety climbs over the shoulders of all individuals who stay here. The scent of home-cooked food heightens as Keith travels further through the sandstone hallway, as reassuring as the sun rising, encasing him in a cycle of homeliness that Keith hasn’t known since he was a baby. 

“Ah, Hunk’s made cake!” 

Lance pushes open the wooden door at the end of the hallway, leading into a cluttered, yet colourful underground annexe. The furniture, although mismatched, still held all the beaming shades of the rainbow. The end table’s aquamarine paint was peeling onto the threadbare orange sofa, a fuschia coverlet halfway hanging off the armrest like an exhausted monkey, a red carpet lying diagonally below a worn, wooden table. The tapestry on the wall was a burnt, saffron yellow. And still, the aroma of an open oven, and the promise of  **food** wafts through the room. 

Keith’s salivating like a dog. 

“I’m home! And I brought a friend!” Lance calls, shedding his cloak and throwing it somewhere random. 

There’s the rapid pitter pattering of footsteps down the stairs, and out emerges a small, boyish like beta, large round glasses perched on their nose and hair a lion’s mane around their pixie-like face. Despite their small stature, Keith can sense something sharp and brilliant within them, like the glitter of a sword, or a forked flash of lightning. 

“Hi, I’m Pidge.” The beta grins. “I’m a girl, but I don’t really care about pronouns.” 

“I’m Keith.” Keith says, glancing down at… she’s human. “You’re human.”

“Are you as well? Damn, how’d you get all the way out here?” 

“Oh, I’m not human, no, only half.” 

Keith instantly regrets his words as curiosity blooms like wildflowers in Pidge’s eyes. 

“Really? H-“

“Alright, enough of the questions, Pidgeon. I smell cake,” Lance interrupts. 

“Duh. Hunk made some.” Pidge replies. 

Keith lets a small smile overtake him, a small one, the one he uses to fill the silence as if it was speech. 

“I heard my name. Are you all badmouthing me? Oh, hello, we have a visitor. Hi, I’m Hunk.” This beta is tall, his smile welcoming and playful like a childhood friend, extending a hand towards Keith in a characteristically human manner.

Keith takes it. “I’m Keith. It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too!” Hunk beams, as full of eager vigour as a mountain stream. “I assume Lance found you at the market, and invited you back, didn’t he? Well, you’re perfectly welcome to some cake, and to stay if you’d like. Lance has a way with lost ones.” 

“Thank you.” Keith’s smile widens a little, as Hunk trundles back to the kitchen. 

Humans were always this way. Innocent and excited like bunnies, despite their sad emotions being as deep and fathomless as the bottom of the sea. They could still be faithful and loyal, and as merry as bees in clover despite the weights of the world, and the harsh reality of the universe. They were as carefree as the puppies they threw sticks for. 

“Shiro!” Lance calls. “Guess he’s not around.” 

“Yeah, he’s out at the moment,” Pidge replies. “He’s trying to get more parts for me. Come on, let’s go have cake.”

And for the first time in decades, as he tucks into a slice of fresh lemon drizzle cake, Keith feels at home. 

* * *

Night had fallen, and Keith was finding it impossible to sleep. It was eluding him, like the scent of a primrose, or a nimbly-footed doe.

Hunk was extremely generous to offer a bed to Keith, when he heard that Keith had nowhere to stay. 

These were definitely humans. 

Pidge, however, had been as quiet as a ghost, only fixing her gaze onto Keith and holding it there, as secure as an enchantment. Keith couldn’t help but feel his nerves flare, as his shoulders shrunk further into his body in discomfort. 

The entire building was quiet, the only sound the soft breathing of Hunk and Pidge on the other side of the room. Although their scents were muted, in slumber they became more apparent to Keith, and he found himself quite enjoying the comforting, neutral lull that they brought. Pidge smelled like rosemary and lavender, her herbal scent implying that she was good with remedies and medicine. Hunk smelled just like freshly baked bread, his scent even carrying the warmth from the oven and perhaps even some of the icing sugar on the top. 

But even these comforting smells couldn’t send Keith to sleep. 

His thoughts were crowding around him, closing in on him like prison-warders hand-cuffing a convict. There was still nowhere for him to go, and although Hunk had graciously told him that he could stay with them as long as he liked, he felt unease at preying on their hospitality. It was of no help that he was also the only omega in the household. What would they do when his heats came? 

And even though he knew that this planet was far away enough from his home so that it was unlikely he would be found, worry still plagued him like a curse. What would they do to him if they found him? What would happen to Hunk, Pidge and Lance? He couldn’t let anything happen to them, they were the only ones who had shown him kindness in all the time he had been on the run. 

He couldn’t help but think of all the things that had happened that day. That strange, purple mist that seemed to beckon him to places unknown, and then Lance, the Altean alpha who had courageously saved him and brought him to this underground apartment, where he was fed cake and smiles and laughter with no price attached. Everything seemed… off. It was all too sudden, he was too lucky.

And, stupidly, he couldn’t get that alpha’s stupid grin off of his mind. 

Keith really hates his inner omega sometimes. 

That’s also what he thinks when the scent of an unknown alpha enters the building. For all he knows, it could be an invader, but all his reptilian omega brain can think of is, ‘smells nice’. He fights the urge to groan, as he slowly rises from his mattress and creeps lightly, as quiet as an owl, through the hallway. He refuses to let his omega take over, as that would expose his scent, even if it would give him the night vision he needed. 

He follows the scent, leading down to the main room where he had eaten earlier. The single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling is lit. Keith frowns. He peeps around the corner to see a tall, bulky alpha making himself… coffee? This shouldn’t be right. 

Keith also can’t help rake his eyes over the alpha’s form, briefly inhaling a whiff of his scent - that was a mistake. The alpha smells like a whole forest, the musk of dead leaves, and pine, and the soothing scent of freshly cut wood. His inner omega preens and stretches, begging to be released. Keith rolls his eyes, fighting the urge to scoff.

That’s when he catches the smoldering, glamorously spiced scent of the beach, and the salty scent of the sea, and he knows Lance is right behind him. He whirls, pressing a finger to his lips in warning. Lance just laughs. Keith frowns. Did he not pay attention to Keith beforehand? 

Lance shoots him a playful grin before descending down the rest of the steps. “Shiro!” He calls, happily. 

The tall, muscled alpha (oh, those biceps) apparently called ‘Shiro’ turns around, a smile breaking across those chiseled features. And Lance, Lance is wearing only a tunic, and Keith’s inner omega is in seventh heaven. 

“Hey, Lance. Sorry to wake you, ran into a bit of trouble on the way back.”

“Just glad you’re back, man. Oh, Keith, come out!” 

Keith huffs childishly, before revealing himself and walking down the rest of the steps. He could at least be civil to this new alpha, who appears to be another one of Lance’s friends. 

“Hello, I’m Keith,” he says, tensing slightly when he catches sight of the alpha’s prosthetic arm - it’s definitely a galra creation, from the way a slight purple glow emanates from the joints. 

“Hey, I’m Shiro. Sorry for waking you up.” 

“It’s fine.” Keith replies, awkwardly. He’s never been the best at small talk. Some mistake it as pride or arrogance, but in reality, Keith’s just very nervous around other people.

Shiro just smiles at him, grabbing his mug of coffee. “I’ll just let you guys get back to sleep, then. Don’t worry about me. I’ll see you in the morning.” 

And as Keith wanders back to the shared room, he finds himself yawning. He flops down onto the mattress like a dead fish, and promptly falls asleep. 

* * *

The morning whirls in through the window like a tornado, shaking Keith from his slumber and flooding the room with warm, summer light. The myriad of tiles on the walls blaze in the golden sunlight like a mosaic of a hundred thousand jewels, flashing on all the furniture with sudden smilings of divine delight. 

Keith slowly rolls off the mattress, wincing at the hard thump of his hip on the floor, and wanders slowly down to the kitchen to grab himself another slice of cake for breakfast and some tea. He can’t help but grin, as he realises the tea is from Earth. 

These domesticated, homely activities become as familiar to him as his alphabet, as Keith sits at the kitchen counter, sipping his mug of tea, and pecking away at a slice of lemon drizzle cake, watching each of his housemates trickle down the stairs like a hesitant stream of water, yawning and groaning like old furniture, as they make themselves breakfast and sit next to Keith, smiling at him and making small conversation. 

“How’d you sleep, Keith?” Hunk asks, kindly. 

“Alright, thanks,” Keith answers. “How about you?” 

“Good. Here’s Pidge.” 

“Morning.” Pidge greets, as she plops down onto the seat beside Keith. “Did Shiro come home last night?” 

“Yeah,” Keith replies. “I smelled him.” 

“Ah, yeah. You’re an omega, aren’t you? Sorry for being standoffish yesterday.” Pidge says. 

“It’s fine,” Keith reassures her. “You’re curious about me, correct?” 

Pidge grins. “I must be easy to read.” 

“Don’t let her questions bowl you over, my friend,” Hunk steps into the conversation, as cleanly as a knife cut. 

“It’s alright.” Keith says. 

Pidge takes that as an affirmation of Keith’s acquiescence to being questioned. “So, you mentioned you’re half human. What’s the other half?” 

A deep, baritone voice sounds from the top of the stairs. “Pidge, didn’t I tell you not to just ask people what they are?” 

Keith lets out a huff of laughter as Pidge shoots him an apologetic glance. “Sorry, Keith.”

“It’s alright. I mean, if it really is important for you to know, I’m half human, half galra.” 

Before Pidge can post another one of her relentless questions, there’s a loud yell from the staircase. Keith whirls around, as quick as a whip, but it’s just Lance tripping over his own feet as he walks down the stairs. Keith’s grin widens.

“Lance, honestly, you’ve walked down those stairs god knows how many times,” Shiro sighs, helping Lance up off the floor. 

Lance dusts himself off with the flamboyant air of a peacock. “I was just distracted,” He sniffs. 

Shiro chuckles fondly. “Pidge, did you get the spare parts I left in your workshop?” 

“Haven’t been up yet. I’ll see them later. Thanks, Shiro.” Pidge beams. “Keith, you’re welcome to join me in the workshop.” 

Lance tuts. “Uh-uh, Keith’s joining me in the marketplace today. He’s my friend too, remember?”

“Shouldn’t Keith be deciding this?” Hunk adds, as he picks up empty plates and puts them in the water basin. 

Hunk is ignored, as Lance places his hands on his hips like a petulant child and says, “Pidge, you’ll get plenty of time to question him later. Let me spend time with my friend first. Besides, Keith’s shy, it’ll be easier for him to spend time with someone he knows.”

Keith’s about to step in with a ‘but we only just met yesterday’, but is cut off by Lance’s brilliant, broad smile. 

“Alright, fine. You know him, I suppose,” Pidge grumbles. “I’m going to go work on the engine.” 

“I’ll help,” Hunk eagerly volunteers. “See you guys later!” 

“I’ve got to get to work. Keith, Lance, are you joining me?” Shiro asks, draining the last of his coffee. He’s already dressed, hair swept back, cloak fastened securely on his broad, strong shoulders. 

“Nah,” Lance answers. “We’ll be doing our own thing. See you later!” 

“Alright, see ya.” 

And as Keith slips on his worn, tattered robes, he can’t help but feel a tiny bit of anticipation - after all, he was spending the whole day with a tall, handsome alpha. He should be allowed to feel a little excited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope u enjoyed
> 
> kudos are my will to live

**Author's Note:**

> id like to thank thesaurus for all the help its given me-


End file.
